Starting senior guard Alyssa Morris was sidelined briefly in midseason for the Riverside Brookfield High School girls basketball team after suffering a concussion and broken nasal passage in practice. Now playing with protective face gear, Morris truly sees the game and her opportunities quite differently.
“I’m going to be wearing that for the rest of my time playing basketball,” Morris said. “I feel like the mask has really made me become more confident in the paint and wanting to become stronger and not being afraid of getting injured in that area. My senior year I just realized that I have to push through it. It’s going to be my last year playing on a high school basketball court. I really should have stepped it up my last game.”
The Bulldogs’ season ended Monday with a 52-35 loss to Mother McAuley in the Class 4A McAuley Regional semifinals.
The Bulldogs (11-21), seeded No. 11 in the Lyons Township Sectional, had won their last five regular-season games and six of their last seven, most recently 59-50 over Larkin, Feb. 11, in the Upstate Eight Conference crossover game. In their debut UEC season, the Bulldogs were fourth in the Red Division with a 7-5 record.
“People were banged up and we finally got to practice and practice together, kind of build a unit,” said RBHS coach Jordan Mack about the strong finish. “They did a great job. We just had time to practice and work together.”
Another big reason was the numerous double-doubles of points and rebounds from third-year varsity player Morris and sophomore Gaby Graupera, a foreign exchange student from Barcelona, Spain.
Graupera achieved that again Monday with 17 points and 11 rebounds with four steals and three assists, followed by seniors Tali Herrera (6 points), Isabella Perez (4 points, 4 steals), Morris (2 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals) and Abbey Tyler (4 points) and junior Abby Weinert (2 points, 4 rebounds).
No. 5 McAuley (18-12) surged to a 24-2 lead in the first quarter but Graupera fueled a comeback that cut the deficit to 34-19 by halftime. The Mighty Macs led 46-25 after three quarters.
“Proud of our girls. They battled and fought back, fought hard,” Mack said.
“[McAuley] goes on a lot of runs. They can really shoot lights out from the three and we had the happy feet. We just struggled in the first quarter, battled after that but that hurt us. They pressed. We turned it over. They were hitting threes and 50-50 balls, they were getting all of them.”
The Bulldogs graduate starters Morris and Perez and key reserves Tyler and Herrera, and will also lose Graupera. The lone returning starter from last season, Morris plans to continue basketball most likely at Rock Valley Community College as a first-generation college student in her family. On Senior Night, Feb. 7, Morris nearly pulled off a triple double in the 56-31 victory over Fenton with 14 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.
Against Larkin, Graupera (20 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks) also had a double-double with contributions from Morris (14 points with 2 threes, 8 rebounds), junior Addie Vaia (10 points), freshman Claire Evans (8 points), Perez (5 steals) and Weinert (3 assists).
“I feel like I’m going to miss the team bonding really, growing to learn my teammates, especially meeting [Graupera],” Morris said.
“We both had the same passion. She’s been playing basketball since she was a kid. I’ve been doing the same. It’s crazy because we’re across the world and we still have the same ambition to want to play basketball and push and actually have that fight.”
McAuley led 28-6 after one quarter on 10-for-16 shooting with four threes while their press contributed to seven turnovers. Graupera had nine points and six rebounds in the first half, including a three-pointer that ended the first-half scoring.
“I feel like a lot of us were pretty sacred, afraid to score and want to attack. [Graupera] was the one that really started it off, kicked it off for us, so kudos to her,” Morris said.
LTHS girls basketball
At the advice of her trainer, Lyons Township senior Nora Ezike created a vision board this basketball season with personal and team aspirations. As the No. 1 seed in the stacked 4A Lyons Township Sectional, the Lions (30-2) seek nothing short of their first sectional title and downstate trip since 1999 after winning regionals the past three seasons.
“This year especially we feel like we have a really strong team and this is our best season in the past few years, actually a lot of years,” Ezike said.
“We really want to push and go all the way. Hopefully we check all of (our goals) off.”
The Lions play No. 8 Fenwick (14-21) for the Morton Regional title Thursday after beating Curie 93-21 Monday. The team has 6-foot-2 Stanford recruit Ezike, arguably the greatest player in program history, and junior Division I recruit Emma O’Brien as well as significantly improved junior Gwen Smith, third-year varsity junior Avery Mezan and senior Tess Bernson as the starting five.
Last season, the Lions gave state runner-up Nazareth its tightest playoff game, a 44-40 loss in the Mother McAuley Sectional semifinals, before the Roadrunners lost to Loyola 44-40 for the state championship.
“We definitely underperformed with what we were hoping to do. But we all remember what it feels like to lose,” O’Brien said. “That’s what we’re trying to pull into this year because we know we don’t want to have that feeling again.”
The Lions began this season with a huge 77-67 victory at Benet and started 14-0 before losing to the rematch with the Redwings 73-58 Dec. 27 in the Montini Tournament semifinals. LTHS won another 14 straight before losing at home to Fremd 56-50 Jan. 8.
The Lions have combined solid defense –man-to-man and 1-3-1 zone – with an improved offense that usually features Ezike, O’Brien and Smith.
“I’m proud of the way they’ve played together, unselfish basketball,” LTHS coach Meghan Hutchens said. “That power three has really been key but just our starting five. They’re just fun to watch when they transition and push and share the basketball.”
At the Montini Tournament, Ezike scored a single-game, school-record 40 points against Prospect Dec. 26 and reached 1,000 career points the following game.
O’Brien reached 1,000 points in the 58-35 win at York Feb. 4 with her first basket, a steal and layup in the first quarter. When Hutchens played for Riverside Brookfield, she also reached 1,000 career points at York.
“I didn’t really think about [1,000] a lot because obviously Nora is really good and she didn’t get it until her senior year,” O’Brien said. “I had no clue how close I was. It was cool to get it.”
The X factor this season has been greater contributions from Smith, who often scores in double figures.
“Obviously Nora and Emma are really good. They get the best defenders so I feel like I had an opportunity to look for my shots and also take some attention off of those two,” Smith said. “It’s been really helpful (to also score) with transition. I just run down the court and Emma passes it. We’re able to get 10 to 12 points off of that.”
At sectionals, the Lions most likely would face No. 4 Whitney Young (23-8) or No. 5 Mother McAuley (18-12) in the Feb. 25 sectional semifinals and No. 2 Kenwood (28-3) or No. 3 Nazareth (29-2) in the Feb. 27 sectional final.
Nazareth has won 21 straight, including 55-49 over Benet Jan. 29 to avenge its last defeat, 66-49 Dec. 14. The Roadrunners also lost their third game of the season to St. Ignatius 41-38 Nov. 27.
Key factors in the Lions’ losses were turnovers against Benet, many unforced, and foul trouble against Fremd.
“We can’t play anyone else’s type basketball. We can’t forget what we believe in and what we want to do,” Hutchens said.